Ricoh Australia has announced the appointment of Paul Thompson to the role of Business Development Manager for its new Direct to Garment and Visual Display solutions. In this role, Thompson has national sales accountability for the Ricoh range of garment, wide format and flat bed print solutions.

Announcing the appointment, Country Manager for the Ricoh Commercial and Industrial Print Solutions Group, Simon Lane, said: “Paul is highly regarded in the Australian market, having held senior sales management roles at both Oce and Canon, selling both wide format and cut sheet product ranges to clients in all market sectors.

“For the past four years, Paul has worked with Ricoh in Europe, driving new channel development and has very close relationships with the European Direct to Garment and Visual Display market leaders. He has decided to return home to Australia and I am delighted he has chosen to stay with the Ricoh family,” said Lane.

Thompson said he is excited by the opportunity: “I’ve had a great relationship with Ricoh so far, and I’m looking forward to working with the Australian team to create new opportunities for our customers in the garment, visual display and graphics arts markets.

“The new Ri 100, Ri 3000 and Ri 6000 Direct to Garment printers allow our customers to access the booming ‘fast fashion’ market with a competitively priced and well feature solution. And the Ricoh Pro T7210 flatbed inkjet platform opens an entirely new opportunity for customers to dominate in the emerging industrial décor market, thanks to its ability to print multi layer images on metal, timber, concrete and glass materials of up to 110mm in thickness,” said Thompson.

Ricoh is demonstrating its new range of direct to garment and visual display solutions at FESPA in Berlin from 15-19 May. Paul will be in Berlin for the show, and Australians attending FESPA can contact Paul via email on pthompson@ricoh.com.au or telephone (0414) 533 763.